Free Republic

One of the things that protestors in South Korea know is that the local riot police have ample experience with demonstrators. While a viable democracy, South Korea has seen out-of-control street riots in its turbulent past. Now authorities across the political spectrum are unwilling to allow anyone to go too far. Peaceful demonstrations? Sure, but don’t press your luck. While American demonstrators – including the most violent – are accustomed to being treated with kid gloves; in South Korea the gloves are off. This is something that career protestors Cindy “Peace Mom” Sheehan and Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin might want...

SEOUL, South Korea — Saying the United States is engaged in an "ideological struggle" to promote freedom, President Bush told troops and their families at U.S. Army Garrison-Yongsan on Wednesday that removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision at the time and is still the right decision. "I know some people in the United States say we’re not at war, that it’s a simple law enforcement matter," Bush said during the first speech of his weeklong Asia tour. "Well, in law enforcement you respond after the crime. Hopefully, the Sept. 11, 2001, lesson will teach us all that...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A U.S. plan to cut the number of its troops in South Korea by one-third by the end of 2005 will force the South to shoulder more responsibility for defending itself against any North Korean military aggression. The U.S. plan calls for withdrawing 12,500 of the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, according to a statement released Monday by the U.S. military in Seoul. The statement coincided with the beginning of talks between the two allies on another sensitive issue: moving U.S. troops farther south away from the tense border with North Korea.